CHESTER — The question before the Union, as it found itself in ninth place in the Eastern Conference last week, wasn’t one of talent. It was of effort.
When they chose to turn it on, the players and their manager agreed, the Union could consistently look like one of the best teams in the East. They were stuck below the playoff line because they hadn’t flipped that switch nearly enough.
Two games later, the club has responded to the challenge.
The Union soundly controlled matters Saturday afternoon at Subaru Park, finally cashing in with a 71st minute goal by Kacper Przybylko to earn a 1-0 win over Atlanta United.
The win vaults the Union (10-7-8, 38 points) at least temporarily into fourth place, the cutoff for home playoff games. With consecutive victories against playoff teams in Orlando City and Atlanta, the Union now have three straight games looming against teams below the playoff line. There’s a real chance to parlay the hard-won momentum and consolidate a high table placement.
Saturday, the Union got it done without Alejandro Bedoya due to a calf strain. But with Przybylko scoring in his second straight game and Jose Martinez providing a moment of utter brilliance to lead to the goal, the Union kept rolling.
“Other guys step in and really do a good job,” manager Jim Curtin said. “I’d say they executed about as well as we probably have all year for 90 minutes. … I thought overall, our best performance of the season.”
Martinez, nicknamed El Brujo or The Wizard, showed why. He cast a spell on a pair of Atlanta defenders down the right touchline, waltzing through them in possession. When he found the pocket behind the defense near the edge of the 18-yard box, he put a hard and low cross near the penalty spot. That’s where Przybylko struck, cajoling it through traffic and past goalie Brad Guzan.
“When I first got the ball, the passes kind of closed down, so I just tried to do one of my own moves dribbling,” Martinez said through a translator. “Luckily I was able to pull it off. Once I went past two defenders I gave a half look and I saw a white boots – I thought at first it was Sergio but then it was Kacper – but I’m equally happy that I was able to get the goal.”
“It’s a play that we need more of as a team,” Curtin said. “You see how much it changes the defense when the first guy beats a player – in that case he beats two – but the importance of that is something we’ve missed with Ilsinho gone. Jose made a huge play for us in a big moment, and then the pass that he plays, on a bumpy field to play a ball that sticks to the field like that, is a next-level pass.”
The breakthrough avoided the frustration on a day where the Union were clearly the better team against an Atlanta side missing striker Josef Martinez (knee).
Early, it was a case of quantity over quality for the Union, with 12 shots but only five on target. Guzan, who made nine saves, came up big in the fifth minute, charging off his line to close down the angle when Sergio Santos was played in all alone. Daniel Gazdag’s attempt to beat Guzan short-side in the 43rd after a Jamiro Monteiro back-heel was denied.
Guzan’s best save came when Jack Elliott sauntered forward, on a day when he and Jakob Glesnes were again superb but were freed of defensive duties by an Atlanta side not playing an out-and-out forward. In the 63rd, Elliott picked a ball out of his feet and fired a low shot that a knee-sliding Guzan smothered.
Andre Blake was called into action just twice. In the 52nd minute, with the Five Stripes starting the second half brightly, Blake dove to his left to glove a Marcelino Moreno shot at full extension. He absorbed a dangerous free kick from Ezequiel Barco in the 73rd. Glesnes and Elliott put out a couple of fires, including a late header by Glesnes to take a cross away from a lurking Jackson Conway.
With Gazdag struggling, Curtin went quickly to Paxten Aaronson before the hour mark. He closed the game, after Martinez and the hard-working Santos cramped, with four Homegrowns in midfield and five of the front six aged 20 or younger.
That mettle to close out the three points typified the increased desire Curtin has been looking for.
“It’s not easy as a 17-, 18-year-old to go into a game of this magnitude, of this intensity, of the quality of players that are on the field, some exceptional talent from Atlanta,” Curtin said. “But you saw all of them step on the field and make an imprint on the game.”
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